How to Recover if Your Site Gets Nuked by Google

What to do if you lose all your traffic

Nothing feels worse than getting hit by your first algorithm update.

The core updates that Google releases 2-3 times a year are when you finally see the results of your hard work in real time: your traffic either skyrockets or tanks.

If your site just got nuked by an update then now is the time to do a complete overhaul of your site. Here’s how.

Why you lost traffic

Google releases small updates throughout the year that target very specific sub-algorithms within the main algorithm. The Helpful Content Update was directly targeting on-page SEO factors. The various Product Review Updates target reviews, etc.

If your site gets hit by one of the smaller updates then you usually know exactly what you need to do: fix whatever aspect of your site that Google targeted with the update and wait for a reversal.

Core updates are a whole different ball game. When Google drops a core update (2-3x per year) they make HUGE, sweeping changes to their algorithm.

If your site fell off a cliff during a core update then it’s a sign that there are multiple things wrong with your site.

You already screwed up. There’s no undoing that. Whether it’s because you were using black hat tactics or you were just lazy and retarded, your site is now completely obliterated.

Dire situations require drastic action. Half-assing ANYTHING isn’t going to cut it.

If you follow the advice in this guide then you can expect your site to recover in about 6 months. This is about how long it’ll take you to complete the work, wait for Google to recrawl your site, and hopefully catch another core update (fingers crossed).

It won’t work if you half-ass it.

If you’re the type of person who throws their hands up and quits at the first sign of adversity then the online business game isn’t right for you. You should polish up your resume and try to find nice, stable, comfy cubicle to waste away the rest of your life in.

But if you’re ready to stop crying about it and do the work, you CAN recover your traffic. Here’s how.

What you need to do

You most likely have no clue why your site nosedived. There could be one or two major things wrong with your site, or (most likely) there’ s a combination of different factors that formed a perfect storm that swept away all of your rankings and traffic in one fell swoop.

You need to assume that everything is wrong with your site. Rather than stabbing in the dark and hoping that you can quickly ID and fix the problem, it’s better to do a complete overhaul of your site. Optimizing everything ensures that you don’t leave a single stone unturned. There’s no chance that you have something lurking in the background that’s going to come back and bite you in the ass during the next core update.

You’re not only fixing the problem but you’re future-proofing your site (as much as it’s possible to do so).

A high-quality website can be like your own personal ATM. Right now that ATM is malfunctioning. It’s worth doing everything you can to get it back to pumping out cash.

It’s not going to be easy. A lot of this work is going to be tedious, monotonous, and boring. It sucks, but this is where the real gangsters are made.

Most normies expect life to be a series of peak experiences. That’s the way the world presents itself to them. They see an MMA fighter putting on a championship belt, but they don’t see the thousands of hours spent training at 6AM. They see an actor receiving an Oscar but don’t see the hundreds of rejections that they went through before landing their first role.

The same applies to business. You started this because you were envisioning the moment when you sell your site and see seven figures land in your bank account. You wanted to finally make it. Did you really think it would be smooth sailing? To get to the peak moment you have to suffer. A lot.

Right now you’re in the suffering stage. You can either cry about it or get to work.

Let’s get to work.

On-page SEO

Improve your informational to money post ratio

I tell you guys this all the time. You NEED to have significantly more informational articles compared to money articles on your site.

I recommend shooting for a 3:1 informational:money ratio. If you go even higher it’s fine, 3:1 is the minimum. There is no amount of informational content on your site that’ll be too much.

If you’ve been spamming money posts on your site then you need to only write informational articles until your traffic recovers.

Is this extreme? Yes.

But you messed up your site by going in one extreme so now you need to be extreme in the opposite direction if you want to fix it.

Match search intent

Make sure you’re matching the search intent of the users. Sometimes people get cocky and think they can trick Google into thinking that one of their money posts is an informational post.

If the search intent of the query is informational, then write an informational post. There are plenty of money keywords you can target. Google isn’t as retarded as they used to be. The bait-and-switch approach is a failed strategy that you should definitely avoid.